Onsen Revenge
by Shinigami's Lullaby
Summary: SPR has a new case, at an Onsen! Mai is targeted by a vengeful spirit, and gets pulled deeper than she'd like into a horrific murder case. Can Naru protect Mai from the spirits, or has SPR finally encountered a case they can't solve? NM
1. Briefing

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Briefing**

**

* * *

**

"Mai! Tea."

Mai Taniyama grimaced, once again cursing her egotistical boss Kazuya Shibuya, or Naru, as she had dubbed him. That was her boss in a nutshell, narcissistic Naru...

"Coming!" she shouted down the hallway. The petite 15-year-old girl headed to the small kitchen near the back of the office and set about making tea, wondering why in the world she had accepted his job offer.

Mai was currently employed as a secretary and all around assistant of sorts by SPR - Shibuya Psychic Research, a research center for the study of psychic phenomena, ghost hunting, essentially. The short-haired brunette had met Naru when the 17-year-old tyrant had come to inspect suspicious phenomena at her high school. It had been love at first sight - until he had opened his mouth. Naru was tall and handsome with dreamy blue eyes and perpetually tousled black hair, so how could she help but fall for him? Of course, her infatuation didn't stop her from cringing at every conceited word that came out of his big fat mouth.

After a strange series of events, Mai had ended up working part time at SPR along with Naru's quiet Chinese assistant Lin, who was older than both Mai and Naru. Mai didn't have any living relatives and her co-workers were now basically her family. Families put up with their members' various quirks, just as Mai dealt with Naru's narcissism, and Lin's inability to socialize like a normal person.

"Mai! What's taking you so long?" She grimaced at Naru's impatience and rushed down the hall to his office.

"I'm coming in!" She knocked on his door, and proceeded to barge in without waiting for the okay.

Naru sat at a large walnut desk, sorting through a large stack of files. "Just set it on the table." He didn't even bother looking up from his work.

Mai resisted the urge to pour the tea over his arrogant head, deciding against it when she realized it would ruin his perfect hair. She instead placed it by his side; he was so mean! Insufferable, really - it wasn't like she was stupid! But he was gorgeous, which, in Mai's book made up for pretty much everything. Almost everything.

Not that she was shallow or anything like that, God forbid! In fact, Naru brought out her deepest feelings of loathing. He was the devil incarnate!

"Mai, why are you standing there staring at me like that?" She blushed and smothered her previously murderous thoughts.

"Uh...sorry!" Mai hurried from the room and shut the door behind her, saying, "Lin-san, would you like tea?"

A muffled 'no' came from the other office. That was him. Brusque as always ... Mai just couldn't for the life of her figure out what his problem was.

Mai snapped out of her reverie at the sound of persistent knocking on the front door. She answered by opening it and saying, "Hello, this is Shibuya Psychic Research, can I help you?"

A young man stood outside. He looked to be in his late twenties, with run-of-the-mill brown hair and dark brown eyes. "Hello, I'm Shuhei Hisagi. I'm sorry to intrude, but you deal with psychic phenomena, right?"

Mai smiled; the man seemed to be nice enough. She ushered him in. "Of course, I'm Mai Taniyama. I'll have my boss come speak with you." She left him in the sitting area and went to fetch Naru.

"Hello, I'm Kazuya Shibuya, head of SPR. How can I help you?" Naru approached the visitor in his usual quiet manner, and motioned for the man to sit.

"My father asked me to request your help. My family runs an Onsen and our guests have recently begun complaining about some odd occurrences." The brown-haired man sighed and shifted nervously in his seat.

"Such as..." prompted Naru.

"Well, one woman insists that she sees people in her bedroom mirror, but when she turns around, there's nobody there. Another has complained about a large, reddish-brown stain in her room that keeps growing larger and larger. She claims that sometimes it turns blood red and begins dripping."

"I'm sorry, Hisagi-san," said Naru, "But it seems to me that your customers just have overactive imaginations." Naru sat back in his chair as Mai bit back a nasty retort. Couldn't he give the poor guy a break!?

"I'm sorr-" Mai began to apologize for Naru's rude behavior.

"That's not all though," interrupted Hisagi, twisting his hands nervously. "There's more - one man claims that he hears someone at night whispering, 'She's coming for you! She's coming for us all!' and then screaming. But the worst: my younger sister, Kisa, has horrible scratches running from her shoulder blades to her lower back that look like fingernail marks. We're losing business every day, I'm begging you, please help us!"

Naru looked thoughtfully at the flustered young man, his blue eyes calculating. He turned to Mai and said, "Hmm ... Mai, call Takigawa-san, Ayako-san, John-san, and Masako-san, fill them in on the details and request their help for this particular case." He stood. "Hisagi-san, this case sounds interesting. My assistants and I will begin research tomorrow. We'll need a room to set up our equipment in, and two more to sleep in. I have a feeling your problem will not be easy to solve." With that, Naru once again retreated to his office.

Hisagi smiled faintly, obviously relieved. "Thank you, Mai-san, and thank Shibuya-san for me also."

"You're welcome!" Mai smiled. "We'll contact you tomorrow." She led him to the door and saw him out. This case sounded interesting, and she would get to see everybody again! Another case, another spirit, and this time, free baths! "Onsen, here I come!" shouted Mai.

"What are you blabbering about at the top of your lungs? Some of us are trying to get some work done!"

_Way to rain on my parade, stupid Naru...._

**TBC**

**

* * *

**

**A/N: **I hope you liked it, I apologize for the shortness... Please take a few seconds to review and tell me what you think, I'd be eternally grateful. Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	2. Dullard

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Dullard**

**

* * *

**

Mai looked out of the fogged up window in the research company's black van. SPR was on their way to Hokkaido, and the Onsen. Although she was excited for her first Onsen bath, she was also exhausted. Naru had insisted that she arrive early at the office that morning to pack the van. That was easy enough for him to say - he and Lin slept there! She, on the other hand had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning in order to catch her train to SPR... Mai needed her beauty sleep, and needless to say, she was quite annoyed.

_Damn that Naru..._

"Mai. Try to get some sleep; we still have a couple hours of driving left. We can't have you falling asleep on the job," said Naru, in some odd semblance of concern. Mai groaned back, she wasn't feeling very charitable towards him that particular morning. It was his fault she was this tired in the first place!

_Maybe sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea,_ she thought, leaning her head down on the window. _Just for a little_, Mai decided, before drifting off.

* * *

Mai was once again in her dream world. Everything was pitch black, and she stood in an old-fashioned yukata. Mai peered into the darkness, hoping for a clue to help their current case. Naru always told her to keep track of her psychic dreams; he said they were the only thing she was really good for. Her animal instincts, emphasis on the animal, not the most flattering compliment you could give a girl...

Mai shook her head. Best to concentrate on the task at hand. The blackness around her began to lift and she saw a pinprick of light in the distance, as color infiltrated the suffocating darkness. Finally, it was starting.

The first thing that came into focus was a middle-aged woman, also wearing an old-fashioned yukata. Mai looked around. She was in an old wooden house, or rather a palace – that was a better word. It was _huge! _The brunette gasped, she was at the Onsen! Mai took a step back. The woman was yelling at _her._

"Hana! I warned you! Now look what you've done!" the woman gestured at a prone man lying on the floor. Mai held back a scream; the woman was holding a butcher's knife, and the man was lying in a pool of blood! Mai began moving, a spectator in Hana's body. Hana, or Mai, backed away.

"Mama, mama! I didn't mean to!" Mai heard herself plead as she retreated from her mother.

"I told you not to get in the way! This had to be done; it was getting worse and worse!" screamed the mother. Mai was lost, what was getting worse? This dream wasn't making any sense.

"I'm sorry! You're right!" Mai heard herself cry as she continued to back away.

"I was just going to scare him a little, not kill him!" The woman was convulsing, she turned on her daughter. "No one can know. No one!"

"Mama, I won't tell!"

"Not enough, not enough!" The woman stalked towards her daughter, knife still in her hands. Mai panicked, she was _not_ dying in someone else's place, in a dream, no less! The woman raised the knife, Mai turned and ran desperately, but there was nowhere for her to go. She backed up against a window, and thought about jumping, but they were too high, on the third story.

'Mama! Stop, stop!" Salty tears coursed down Mai's cheeks. She held up her arms in a last defense. But instead of the sharp knife she was expecting, a hand pushed hard against her chest. Mai fell, down, down, down, down, out the window.

Mai choked; she was falling deeper into a black hole. She was suffocating; everything was sticky, like molasses. Then there was pain. Everywhere. She screamed and screamed - make it stop! Mai choked on the blackness. She couldn't breathe.

_I didn't mean to! I don't want to die!_

* * *

"Mai! Mai! Wake up!" Mai jerked up; she was covered in sweat, and Naru was shaking her shoulders roughly from the front seat. "What happened!? Are you okay!?"

"N-naru...it hurts, my chest, I couldn't breathe!" Mai started to cry. The sensation was horrible, like she had died ten times over.

"Mai. You're okay now." Naru gently stroked her hair, consoling the sobbing girl. He was not in the least bit comfortable; consoling hysterical females wasn't really within his comfort zone. But the only other person there was Lin. Not likely.

Mai calmed herself and chanted, like a mantra, _Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream._ She wiped her eyes and sat up.

"I'm sorry, I just... just..."

"Do you need to talk about it?" Not "Do you want to?", but "Must you?" Mai smiled faintly. Naru wasn't very good at calming people down.

"I'm fine. Are we there yet?" She craned her neck to see out of the van's window, but all she saw was green. Lots and lots of green.

"Yeah. You started screaming bloody murder right when Lin was pulling off the road. Scared the hell out of him too." Mai looked over at Lin, who was glancing around nonchalantly. Yeah, right! Nothing fazed a guy like that.

Mai opened the door and stepped out, her dream instantly forgotten, "Wah! It's beautiful!" She spun in circles, inhaling the clean Hokkaido air. Old, tall trees surrounded them, their spindly branches reaching up to a deep, blue sky.

"This isn't a vacation," Naru deadpanned, "it's work." Mai pouted, her good mood ruined.

"You know what? I'm going to start calling you 'Mood Ruiner Naru!'" she said triumphantly. Neener, neener, neener!

"Don't you dare. 'Naru's' bad enough!" Mai shrunk back a bit. Naru's expression was rather, well, frightening!

She stopped taunting him, and took another look at the scenery. In the dappled shade behind the trees stood a large wooden building. Mai took a step closer, in an attempt to better make out the structure. It was old, and regal, in a dilapidated sort of way. It had obviously been majestic in its day. Complicated wooden carvings adorned the building, and she saw steam rising from a brick chimney at the top.

The building may have been falling apart, but it was breathtaking, regardless. "Whoa... this place is amazing! Is this the Onsen?"

"Yes, 'Master of the Obvious' Mai."

"Hey. I gave up on the nicknames, so it's only fair you do too!" Mai crossed her arms stubbornly, "Poo face!"

"Ignoramus."

"Stupido!"

"Dimwit."

"Loser!"

"Dullard."

"Idio- wait. What's a dullard!?"

"Look it up in the dictionary, moron."

Lin shook his head. Sometimes those two acted like five year olds. Except, they were worse. Five year olds had attention spans to match their age, but those two could go on for hours! Lin sighed; he could already feel a migraine coming on...

_I didn't mean to! I don't want to die!_

**TBC**

_

* * *

_

**A/N: **Thank you for reading, and to those of you who reviewed the past chapter! Sorry it isn't a cliff hanger, unfortunately those aren't my strong suit...Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	3. Reunion

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Reunion**

**

* * *

**

"Takigawa, Ayako, John, Masako!!" Mai madly waved her arms back and forth, as if guiding a plane down for landing. It had been a while since she had last seen SPR's other workers, not since Urado's Mansion, in fact.

"As exuberant as always, eh, chibi?" Takigawa crushed Mai in a bear hug. "Sure you still don't want to come live with me?"

"Quite positive!" smiled Mai, prying herself from the grip of the brown-haired, 25-year-old bassist/Monk/Exorcist. She turned to Masako - the medium was ignoring her as usual. _Well, _she thought, _some things just don't change, do they?_

"Hello, Mai, how are you?" asked a young, kind-looking blond man wearing priest's robes.

"Fine, John! It's great to see all you!!" she replied cheerfully to the Catholic exorcist with the odd-sounding Australian accent. "Looks like we're all together again!!"

"Well, seems like I can't get away from this doofus for long," grumbled a red-haired young woman, poking Takigawa in the side.

"Ayako, don't be like that, sweetie!" said Takigawa said to the Miko in a fake, sugary voice. "You know I just hate you too, right?"

"Everyone. We're here to work. Settle your childish disputes elsewhere, and on someone else's time," deadpanned Naru. "I went to speak with Hisagi-san - they've already prepared rooms for us, so we need to unpack first, and then he'll fill us in on the details of the case. So, who wants to help me with the equipment?"

Takigawa attempted to back away, grimacing at the prospect of lugging Naru's 80-pound T.V. screens and cameras to God knows where...

"Ah. Takigawa-san. Thank you for volunteering. I'll show you where you need to take the screens," Naru said, pinning the other man with an icy glare. Takigawa sobbed theatrically, made a big show of cracking his back, and then, resigned to his fate, followed Naru to the black van.

* * *

Takigawa collapsed after he had successfully carried all of Naru's equipment into the Base room. "Kill me now. I can't move anyway!"

"Stop being such a wimp, get up! We have company!" sniffed Ayako, nudging the monk with her toe.

Hisagi sat at the table with Naru, Lin, John, Mai and Masako, smiling at the two's antics.

"Hisagi-san, would you mind repeating what you told us at SPR?" asked Naru.

"Sure. Well. One man hears voices and screaming, one woman complains of a growing rust-colored stain, and another sees people in the mirror that aren't there. Also, my sister Kisa has horrible scratches running the length of her back." Hisagi sighed and continued, "My parents are out of town on vacation, so right now, it's just my sister and me running the Onsen. My father asked me to request your help, and I was hoping we could put all of this spirit business behind us before they return."

"We'll do our best. How long have you been running this place?" asked Naru, as Lin typed Hisagi's complaints.

"We've only been here for twenty years; I don't know who was here before."

"Okay, that's all for now. If we have any further questions..."

"Of course, don't hesitate to ask. I'll leave you all to your work. Again, thank you all!" Hisagi bowed deeply, and left the room.

"I researched this building last night. It's quite old," began Naru, only to be interrupted by Mai.

"Now its 'Master of the Obvious Naru!'" crowed Mai.

"Don't be childish, Mai," sighed Naru. Takigawa snickered, only to be clipped in the head by Ayako.

"Don't be rude, you loser monk!" the Miko said. Masako and John exchanged glances, this could take a while...

Naru sat semi-patiently while the two fought, and then continued after Mai hit Takigawa _and_ Ayako, quieting the bickering adults. "Five families have lived here before the Hisagi's. Nothing interesting happened to the first two, but as for the third family, the Yamada's, they all disappeared. They were a family of three with a daughter, Hana. With the next family, the Urusai's, the daughter Hikari died in an accident when she was fifteen. Finally, the most recent family was the Tsukimi's, whose 17-year-old daughter Utau also died in an accident."

"It seems like this Onsen _is _cursed. That's five deaths in only a hundred years. And it seems like most of the victims are teenage girls," said Takigawa.

Mai frowned. Something about the name "Hana" sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it...

"Augh!" A piercing scream echoed through the halls of the Onsen.

Naru stood up quickly. "Takigawa, John, come with me! Mai, wait, come back!"

Too late. Mai had already sprinted down the hallway in the direction of the scream. What in the world had happened? Hisagi poked his head out of one of the sliding doors lining the hall, and shouted frantically, "Call 119! One of the residents is hurt!" Mai maneuvered herself around him, and stopped as her eyes took in the body on the floor.

A young woman was lying on her back, covered in blood. A wound ran down the length of her arm streaming blood, and the rest of her arm was purpling in a nasty bruise. Mai put a hand to her mouth, shocked - did the woman do this to herself!? She took a step back. There was no weapon in sight, so how could this have happened? Who would do something like that? A spirit?

"Mai! Snap out of it! Call 119!" Naru shook Mai gently; she came out of her stupor and dialed, almost as a reflex. An odd cackling sound reverberated throughout the Onsen.

Mai shivered and dropped the cell phone; she could sense that something was wrong. The screeching sound grated against her consciousness, and she was getting tunnel vision. Black flowers bloomed across her vision, she couldn't feel the floor under her feet, and then she couldn't feel anything. Just falling into oblivion. She.... was falling....

Down...

Down....

Into a black pool of nothing. Wonderful.

_I don't want to die! Help me!_

_

* * *

_

**A/N: **Thank you for reading and reviewing! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	4. Rust

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Rust**

**

* * *

**

_I don't want to die!_

Mai spun backwards through space, her consciousness scrambling for a meaningful explanation for her current situation. Every time she had psychic dreams she saw something happening, almost like a play. She had never felt this disorienting sensation of endlessly falling.

Her heart was in her throat as she spiraled through suffocating blackness. Mai tumbled through the nothingness for what felt like hours, until she finally landed in a sticky pool.

_What is this? _Mai thought, lifting her fingers to her face in an effort to make out the substance. She blanched as she smelled the rust.

Blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Mai scrambled back in a vain attempt to avoid the stuff. She reached the edge of the pool and crouched, panting. The girl watched fearfully as the blood began to bubble and three shapes emerged. She bit back a scream as she realized what the shapes were.

Three girls. One was covered in what looked to be bug bites, her whole body a swollen mass. The other two were covered in scratches and cuts. The three teenagers stared at Mai as she cowered by the pool's edge.

_Just what had happened to them?!_

One of the girls approached Mai, her eyes sorrowful. "You're next," she said, in a soft voice.

"E-Excuse me!?" stuttered Mai, backing away. This wasn't like her normal dreams - she was _scared_. This had never happened to her. Mai didn't have conversations with the people who inhabited her dreams. She was always just an onlooker.

"She is coming for you next," reiterated the first girl, sightless eyes staring straight ahead.

".....who's she?" Mai asked, gathering up her courage. Naru would kill her if she didn't come back with any information.

"_She,_" chorused the three girls, in haunting unison.

Mai backed away; this was getting too weird for her. "I don't understand what you're saying!"

"The mistress of the house," said the bitten girl, her swollen face twisting in a grimace.

"The Onsen, you mean?" asked Mai. The three girls and the bloody pool were beginning to fade together, twisting and turning about in a swirl of color.

The three girls nodded their heads jerkily, "She. It was all for greed."

"What!?" shouted Mai desperately. But the ghostly apparitions had faded altogether; and she began to fall again, but this time up to the surface.

_"She," _Mai thought she heard the three girls say, but she wasn't sure. Her head was spinning as she thrashed through the dark liquid.

"Mai..." whispered a tiny voice." Mai!" she heard, a bit louder than the first. "MAI! WAKE UP!"

Mai opened her eyes and found herself lying on the floor surrounded by a ring of concerned faces.

"What happened!? Are you alright?!" screeched Ayako, sticking her face up close to Mai's, checking her pupils and limbs for any bumps or scratches. "You just collapsed all of a sudden when the paramedics were carrying that woman away."

"Is she okay?" asked Mai, pulling herself up into an upright position.

"She's fine; it was just a scrape, thank god! It didn't hit her brachial artery, nor the radial or the ulnar, so she'll be out of the hospital in a couple days." Takigawa made a face at Ayako 's spewing out of random medical terms. Mai giggled, already forgetting her horrible dream.

"Mai. What are you doing on the floor? We have work to do!" snapped Naru.

"Wait! Don't you want to hear about my dream!?" asked Mai, standing. "You usually do." For whatever reason, Mai was desperate to regain Naru's attention.

"Fine. Just don't waste my time. _I_, unlike some people here, have things to do," Naru said arrogantly. In truth, he had been worried sick about his assistant, but fat chance he'd say it to her face. Or anyone else's for that matter...

Mai pouted. "Do you want to hear about it, or not!?" And without waiting to hear his answer, she proceeded to relay her entire dream to the rest of SPR.

When she was finished, Naru was staring into space, obviously thinking hard. He sighed and then turned to Mai, saying, "You said that they mentioned a 'she' repeatedly. Did they say anything else about her?"

Mai frowned, trying to remember the dream. "Well...they said she was 'the mistress of the house,' and that she was 'greedy.' But that was it."

"Hmm." Naru looked up from the files in his hand. "Mai, Takigawa, Ayako: explore the house and note any irregularities. Lin and I will continue research. John. Masako. Watch the monitors for any odd phenomena." He turned and headed back to Base, followed by John and Masako, who glommed onto Naru's side.

"Always ordering us around!" Mai fumed, "It's not like he's the 'Queen of Sheba,' or something!"

"Don't you mean 'King of Sheba?'" asked Takigawa, ruffling Mai's hair.

"No. I mean '_Queen_!'"

Ayako grinned, "See? Naru's a girl. That's why he turned me down when I asked him out. Now you can't make fun of me anymore!" The Miko jokingly poked Takigawa in the side.

"Pshaw! I bet Mai's feminine charms could change his...ahem...her mind..." argued Takigawa.

"Are you saying that I'm not beautiful? Because I am. Beautiful, that is." asserted Ayako, perfectly manicured nails resting on her hip.

"In your own special way..." said the monk in a sickly sweet voice, dodging Ayako's elbow.

"Guys!" shouted Mai, inserting herself between the bickering adults. "Let's just get to work, okay?"

"Fine," Takigawa and Ayako chorused, before glaring at each other like small children.

* * *

Mai sneezed as a cloud of dust billowed from the door she had just opened. "Phew!" she said, waving her arms around in a vain attempt to disperse the offending substance. "Have these people ever heard of spring cleaning!?"

"Apparently not!" muttered Ayako, brushing dust from her skirt. "I just took this to the dry cleaners!"

Takigawa was busy on the other side of the room, attempting to tear ply board from a boarded up window. "Man! What is this stuff? It feels like steel!" he said despairingly.

"Just put your back into it! You're always bragging about all that weight you can bench press!" jeered Ayako.

Mai smiled to herself as the Miko continued to poke fun at the annoyed monk. They were such little kids! And cute together too.... The tearing sound produced by Takigawa's crowbar, which he had finally coaxed into ripping away the wood, startled Mai from her contemplations.

"Mai! Ayako!" Takigawa's voice was slightly higher pitched than usual. An odd, musty smell filled the room. "I think I just found something..."

**TBC**

**

* * *

A/N:**How was it? Again, sorry the chapters aren't longer- but that's just how I roll. Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami 's Angel^


	5. Skull

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Skull**

**

* * *

**

_"Mai! Ayako!" Takigawa's voice was slightly higher pitched than usual. An odd, musty smell filled the room, "I think I just found something..."_

Mai turned from the closet she was sifting through. There was an odd note in Takigawa's voice.

"Augh!" screeched Ayako, covering her nose. "What is that!? It smells rotten!! Again - spring cleaning, people!"

Mai approached Takigawa and noticed immediately that what she had mistaken for a window was in fact a door. She peered into the dim room the monk had uncovered, and took a step inside.

Her feet crunched down on broken glass as she edged her way into the room, carefully testing the floor. You never knew with these old buildings; more than one unexpected collapse had marred their adventures.

The brunette felt her way along the wall. "Monk-san, Ayako! Would you go tell Naru about this room?"

"Sure, chibi. We'll be right back, just don't hurt yourself!" Takigawa snickered as Ayako pulled him toward their mission.

Mai smiled and continued to feel her way across the room; they were near the edge of the Onsen, so there had to be a window somewhere around there.

And then she tripped. "Ouch!" Mai groaned, rubbing her ankle. She had fallen over _something, _but she just couldn't tell what it was. Mai felt around blindly, searching for the rock-like thing she had stumbled over.

"Found it!" She grinned triumphantly, her hands around something hard and round. Mai brought the object closer to her face in an attempt to make it out in the darkness. And then she dropped it.

Hollow eyes stared up at Mai reproachfully. She had tripped over a skull. A human skull.

_Oh my god._

Mai shuddered, bringing her hands up to cover her eyes.

_This isn't real. _

_It's not happening. _

_It has to be another dream…_

_Another dream…_

_Another dream…_

Mai cracked open an eye, and stared open-mouthed at the skull that was most definitely sitting in front of her.

_Not my imagination._

_Oh god._

She attempted a scream, but no sound came out. Her eyes began to focus in the dim light; the grinning skull came into clear view. She could make out the contours where the bone plates fitted together through shredded skin, and…

_Is that hair!?_

Mai shut her eyes: this was too much.

_Please get here._

_Somebody!_

_Please!_

_Anyone-_

_Naru!!_

"Mai!?" Takigawa's voice filtered down through Mai's fear. "Mai, what's wrong? Wha-" The monk who had just arrived with Naru in tow took a step back when he saw what Mai was grimly pointing to, her finger shaking.

The skull.

"Mai. Come here." Naru focused on Mai's pale face. "Mai. Get up." But Mai was far from hearing his words.

_Too much. _

_It's too much._

And then she fainted. Again.

* * *

Mai smelled flowers. Wildflowers. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in the scene around her.

She was lying in on an open field, on the edge of a forest. The forest. _This is where the Onsen is! _she thought, looking around her. _How in the world did I get out here!? _

Mai idly stared up into the sky, taking in the fluffy white clouds. _I suppose someone will come to get me eventually..._

What she really needed to do was figure out SPR'S current case. Nothing made any sense to her. It was all jumbled up in her mind, a bunch of puzzle pieces from different pictures. Nothing fit together logically, which was where Naru the puzzle master came in. That was his job: making sense of all the clues. He always did, and in the end he would take all the credit.

_What a bastard! _Mai smiled ruefully. He was such a jerk, really … and yet, she still liked him in those rare moments when his eyes would soften and he would act like he actually cared about something other than himself.

Mai looked up from her spot on the ground; she could hear a faint rustling sound. _It's a dream. I'm dreaming, _she thought, noticing someone she saw only rarely, in a secluded part of her subconscious. Dream Naru was walking towards her, a gentle smile on his face.

"Where have you been? You haven't been in any of my dreams this time." Mai said, staring up at Naru and shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. Dream Naru used to be in all of her dreams; he would come and drop helpful hints about SPR's current case. And – a bonus – he always smiled, unlike the Naru in real life.

"I've been here. I just haven't been able to contact you." Naru sat down next to Mai.

"Do you have any of those helpful tips? Real life Naru'd be glad if I came back with something..." Mai grimaced, she never got to enjoy her peaceful dreams – it was all data collecting. So, basically, she was only good for sleeping...

"This one is dangerous."

"You always say that." Mai smiled up at Dream Naru, who absentmindedly ran a hand through his jet black hair.

"And I always mean it."

"But, if you give me some clues, I'll be better off in the long run, right?" Mai pouted childishly. The real Naru was going to kill her if she couldn't come up with something better than the only clue she'd been able to provide so far, that the girls in her dream had told her that it was 'all for greed.'

"You'd be better off not knowing."

"I- what!?"

"Just stay away from her."

"Her- is she the one those three girls were talking about?"

"Yes. She's bitter, and greedy. Don't let her lead you away from the path."

Dream Naru began to blur, the edges of his body softening and blending together with the scenery. "Path!? What path!? Naru, you aren't helping anything!!!" Mai shouted desperately as her vision began to melt away.

The dream was over – and Mai was still confused, even more so than before.

And, better yet, Naru was going to blame her for not getting any information that made sense!

_Why me!? _Mai despaired, watching sadly as the rest of Dream Naru melted away into inky oblivion.

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: ****Author's Note: **If I don't update within a couple weeks then, basically, I'm dead. Thanks, you all, for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	6. The Skull Has Friends

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Skull Has Friends**!

* * *

Mai blearily opened her eyes and looked up at the plain, white ceiling.

And Masako's face.

Mai sat up quickly and the black-haired girl took a step back before saying, "Are you finally awake?"

Mai frowned, "Finally?"

"You've been asleep for a couple hours. And it seems like that's all you do. Sleep, that is..." Masako seemed to be smirking behind her kimono.

Mai groaned. She was NOT getting into a fight with Masako, not now when she'd just woken up. "Hmph," she said, pouting.

"Naru's waiting for you in the room where you fainted. He wanted me to tell you to join them after you woke up."

"Uh huh. So...what've you been up to recently?" Mai had decided when the case had first started to try to build bridges with Masako. It was no use hating a teammate. After all, teammates didn't just disappear...

"Awake," Masako smirked.

"Okay. I'm going to Naru." Plan 'Get-to-know-Masako-because-she-might-not-be-a-total-bitch' was a failure. But she had tried, right? Mai stood up and left Masako behind in the Base. She strode down the Onsen's main hallway and up the stairs. Pausing briefly before the door of the room that she, Takigawa and Ayako had been cleaning, she squared her shoulders and headed in.

SPR's boss and exorcists were standing in a loose circle, apparently in some sort of argument.

"Takigawa!" Ayako screeched, "Stop poking me!"

"Well I would, if you'd stop flirting with Naru!"

"Jealous?"

"You wish!"

"Die, you stupid monk!"

"Never!" Takigawa grinned maniacally, and began to tickle Ayako. John stood next to the two, trying not to laugh. Naru was oblivious to the mess, instead sorting through his ever present files.

He looked up as he heard Mai approach. "Mai. Are you fully alert now?"

"Yes?" Mai frowned. Way to get off on the right foot, Naru.

"I would appreciate if you would sleep on your own time. I don't want to have to keep getting you up to speed like this."

"Wait...don't you appreciate my dreams because they give you clues?"

"Mai, if you slept any longer, you'd develop bed sores. Stop napping on my time!"

Mai bit back a nasty retort; it wasn't her fault! But... if he didn't care, then she wasn't going to tell him what she learned. He could slog through this case on his own for all she cared!

"Fine. So. What was with the skull?"

Naru glared at Mai over his files, he hated having to explain things. "That wasn't just _a_ skull."

"You mean it had friends?"

"Yes. Whole friends. That actually had skin. And that skull had a body of its own. Upon closer examination, it was actually still covered mostly in skin, although you could see quite a bit of bone, so technically it was still a head."

"A severed head!?"

"Yes. Ayako!"

Ayako turned from her poking war with Takigawa at the sound of her name.

"Naru? Oh...the bodies right?" Ayako grimaced, and said to Mai, "Being the only doctor present, I was called over to examine the bodies. There were three in total. They were all teenage girls. One seemed to have died as a result of a blunt trauma wound to the back of their head, and all three bodies were covered in scratches. Another most likely died of blood loss, as she was covered in huge wounds and her..."

Ayako shivered at the memory of examining the second body, and Takigawa patted her encouragingly on the back - "... her eyes were gouged out. And. The last girl was covered in bug bites; a lot of her skin had been eaten away. There was no dried blood on the ground, so we believe that these girls were dragged there by another... thing. We haven't yet determined whether a human murdered them."

"I doubt it was a person, however, because the age of the bodies span over at least fifty years," Naru continued after Ayako finished talking.

Mai had tuned out of the conversation, her mind stuck on the picture of three mutilated girls that Ayako had painted in her head. The three mutilated _teenage_ girls.

The ones from her dream....

**TBC**

**

* * *

A/N: **Thank you for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	7. A Feeling

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 7: A Feeling**

**

* * *

**

_The three mutilated teenage girls._

_The ones from her dream...._

Mai's eyes widened with sudden understanding. The three girls they had found must have been the same ones from her dream _and_ they must have been the daughters of the families that had lived at the Onsen before the Hisagi's.

The ones that had mysteriously gone missing. They must have been murdered.

"N-naru?" Mai whispered. "I know who they are..."

Naru turned to Mai. "How?"

"I just do. They're the ones from my dream. Remember? The disfigured ones I told you about." Mai shivered, remembering the three bloody corpses. "The ones that warned me."

"Hmm..." Naru hadn't yet decided whether or not Mai's dream was correct, although they usually were, "So. You're saying you had a dream about these girls. But how does that prove that they're the daughters of the families here?"

Mai frowned at Naru's inability to see the obvious. "Where else would these girls have disappeared to? It all makes sense. The bodies spanned over a lot of time, so these three match the descriptions perfectly, right?"

"True. Ayako-san, Takigawa-san, John-san. Join Lin and Hara-san at Base, and tell them about Mai's idea."

Mai cut in, "It's not an idea! It's the truth!!"

"How do you know?" Naru deadpanned.

"I... I just have a feeling!"

"So you're backing up your feeling with another feeling?" Ayako, Takigawa and John laughed at that, before filing out of the room in the general direction of Base.

"...." Mai growled. _Conceited sonofabitch!_ "And your point is?!"

Naru looked pointedly at Mai, and then continued. "The three bodies had clothes on. Of course, they were deteriorating, but two of the three yukatas had names stitched into them that matched two of the family names. The third one, the oldest body, had no identification."

"So you were screwing with me just now?" Mai growled again.

Naru smirked and then continued, "But what makes this all so odd is that the room you found the bodies in was boarded up from the inside. Which explains why Takigawa-san was having so much trouble getting it open."

"Boarded from the inside? All three? With no blood on the floor? That doesn't make any sense. Are you sure?" questioned Mai.

"Positive. This all makes me think that the perpetrator cannot be human. I believe that rather than a murder, which was what I first suspected when we found the bodies; a spirit is at work here."

"I guess that makes sense," said Mai grudgingly. "So let's just pretend that there's a spirit on a murderous rampage. How would the scratches on Hisagi's sister Kisa's back, the creepy voice, blood stain, and people in the mirror fit into all of this? And what about the woman that got attacked?! There's definitely way too much stuff going on here to be the work of just one spirit!"

"If you had murdered a bunch of people, would you want others to find out your secret? asked Naru. "I believe that the spirit is just trying to scare people away to keep them from uncovering the truth. And don't forget the three girls in your dream; they are also probably trying to warn us away from the spirit, to keep us from meeting similar fates."

"Yeah, that would make sense. The three were telling me to stay away from the woman, the one they said 'did it all for greed.' So we can assume that the murderer is a woman, right? But we have to find out why she's was greedy, and why she decided to murder all of these people, to make all of this make sense... Dream Naru hasn't been showing up much lately. Do you think that the evil spirit is keeping him away?"

"Dream Naru came appeared in your dreams and you didn't tell me? Mai! You need to fill me in on _all_ of your dreams immediately. They could be important," insisted Naru.

"Well, you were being such a jerk! Maybe I just didn't want to tell you!" Mai stuck out her tongue at him cheekily. "Not everyone lives at your beck and call, Naru."

"They should," Naru said with a slight smile.

"Egotistical bastard much?" Mai asked playfully. She was in a pretty good mood. After all, bits and pieces of the case were beginning to come together! She smiled at Naru's heaved sigh, and then sobered slightly.

_Murderous spirit + dead people._ Mai gulped. _Sounds like fun..._

**TBC**

_

* * *

_**A/N: **Thank you for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	8. Dreamscape

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Dreamscape**

**

* * *

  
**

"So. You're saying there's a murderous spirit on a rampage that likes to kill teenage girls?" Hisagi had rejoined SPR for a briefing after he returned from the hospital, where he had accompanied the wounded woman, Sayuri Atsuzaki.

"In essence, yes." Naru folded his hands and looked at the older man calculatingly. "How old is your sister Kisa?"

"Kisa? She's only twelve." Hisagi's eyes widened. "You mean to say that the spirit's going after my sister!?"

"No. It has only been going after teenagers. Right now, I'm just covering all of my bases." Naru watched as Lin typed madly, allowing him to catch up. "I believe in the case of your sister's scratches, along with Sayuri-san's, that the spirit is just attempting to warn us away. Which begs the question: what is it protecting? More dead bodies? That is what I concluded at first. But, after talking with Mai, I believe that is unlikely." Naru motioned to his female assistant, who was sitting to his right, listening to his theories with interest.

"I doubt that the spirit is hiding more dead bodies. If that was the case, then when we uncovered the first three it would have flown into a rage. I am beginning to suspect that there is some sort of back-story involved. Usually in cases like this the spirit has not yet realized that we cannot persecute it and still believes it will be punished. So as a result they continue to build layer upon layer of protection around the internal problem."

Mai wondered where in the world he would have had time to think through all of these things, but then she realized there was a flaw in his reasoning, "Naru. Why would a spirit cover up a murder with more murders?"

"Wait," Hisagi interrupted, "How do you know the spirit is trying to cover up an original murder?"

"...Uh... a feeling?" Mai offered. She didn't really understand why it would be a murder. The words had just come out of her mouth before she had a chance to consider what she was saying.

"Another feeling," Naru stated, thoughtfully staring into space. "Your first one was right, so I have no reason to discount this one, but..."

"She's been right so far, why don't we just go with that for now?" Takigawa interjected from the other side of the room. "Covering up a murder is as likely a story as any." The rest of SPR's members were listening in on the conversation. "Plus. Mai's trustworthy! Usually..." He added with a grin, ignoring Mai's glare.

* * *

Mai yawned. It was getting late and she was exhausted. Freaking out over skulls really took it out of you.

"Mai, honey, why don't you get some sleep?" asked Takigawa in a fake motherly voice.

"Mmph." Mai groaned, too tired to even protest at the jibe. She promptly fell asleep.

Back in the dreamscape... that was the first thing she noticed. And then she realized she was back at the Onsen years and years ago.

Mai warily backed away when she realized the woman from her original dream that had killed Hana – or Mai – was standing before her. But this time, the woman didn't seem to notice Mai's presence, and instead seemed to be pleading with a man. Mai stifled a gasp. It was the man the woman had killed in her prior dream.

Mai watched as the woman reached out beseechingly to the man, only to be slapped away. She couldn't hear anything; the scene was being played before her like a silent movie. The man seemed to be shouting at the woman, who was now cowering on the floor, weeping. He stepped up to her and kicked hard. Mai involuntarily brought a hand up to her mouth as blood spurted out the woman's mouth.

Even though that woman was a murderer, Mai's heart went out to her.

_Wait! _Mai thought, _a murderer? She keeps showing up in my dreams... could this woman be the spirit plaguing the Onsens? After all, I saw her kill two people when she was alive. What would stop her from killing them when she was dead? _

The man continued to beat the woman senseless, screaming at her. Mai looked to the side just in time to see Hana peek around the door frame before her vision faded into nothing.

But the dream wasn't finished revealing its secrets to her. Colors separated and she found herself once again in the old-fashioned bath house, this time with just the woman and daughter.

Hana was sobbing hysterically as her mother yelled at her.

The mother snapped, "Why must you ruin everything, you ungrateful brat!"

"M-mama, I didn't mean to!" Hana cried.

"Well, now. That is not going to take back what you said, now is it!?"

"N-no..."

"How could you say that to your Father? 'Better off without you'- you know how he gets! And then I had to defend you." The woman angrily motioned to the bruises marring her face. "Do you think I like this? Can you not consider what you say before it comes out of your mouth? Without him we have nowhere to go, so we have to put up with what he does."

"But, Mama!" Hana cried beseechingly, "Good daddies don't beat their families!"

"One more word out of your mouth..." the woman trailed off threateningly." We _will_ get away from here eventually, but for now, remain silent. Do not tempt more trouble than you can handle."

"We're leaving?" Hana asked hopefully, getting to her feet.

Mai felt uneasy. There was something not quite right about that woman, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She seemed civil with her child, if not very warm. But beneath that, Mai detected something almost crazy… like it would take just one nudge for the woman to shatter into sharp, dangerous pieces.

The thought terrified Mai – she backed away as the woman looked at her child with an odd gleam in her eye. "We're leaving, Hana. But first, I have unfinished business with your father."

Mai blanched, unfinished business? More like murder!

Wait. Murder? The woman murdered her family members. Her _teenage _daughter and her husband. Could this be the first family that Naru was talking about?

_Naru sat semi-patiently while the two fought, and then continued after Mai hit Takigawa and Ayako, quieting the bickering adults. "Five families have lived here before the Hisagi's. Nothing interesting happened to the first two, but the third family, the Yamada's, all disappeared. They were a family of three, with a daughter, Hana_. _With the next family, the Urusai's, the daughter Hikari died in an accident when she was fifteen. Finally, the most recent family was the Tsukimi's, whose 17-year-old daughter Utau also died in an accident."_

Could this family be the Yamada's? There were three daughters in all, between the three families... Mai gasped, they must be the three girls whose bodies Mai had found! Hana, Hikari and Utau. But what about the Hana's parents? Mai knew the father was dead, but what could have happened to the mother, and where was the father's body?

Mai shut her eyes as her dream faded away. What she still didn't understand was the three girls in her dream's – Hana, Hikari and Utau – warning of a woman who 'did it all for greed.' Who was she? Mai also didn't really understand a lot of the odd things that were happening to the Onsen guests.

Naru had explained that the spirit was just trying to scare them away, but something didn't add up. The man saw girls in the mirror, not a woman. Was the murderer another teenager?

The brunette sighed. This one was way over her head. She had a feeling that SPR was going to have to backtrack in order to get answers.

_Fun, fun..._ she though sarcastically and then realized_, Wait. I haven't even gotten a bath out of this yet!_

**TBC**

_

* * *

_**A/N: ** Gene doesn't really fit into this particular story, just assume that Mai and Naru both know about Gene, and it's old news...sorry for the confusion! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	9. Truth or Dare

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Truth or Dare**

**

* * *

**

Mai sighed and propped her head up with her fist. Naru had ordered her to interview all the Onsen guests in a quest for answers. So far, none of them had anything interesting to say beyond one woman's unexpected comment.

"Well," the young woman had whispered conspiratorially, "Is your boss available? He's _hot_!"

To which Mai smiled, replying, "You don't want anything to do with Naru. He's good looking, and he knows it. Total narcissist – can't get enough of himself!" The woman frowned and excused herself shortly after that little bomb shell.

Following her were numerous frightened people whose observations began to somehow blend together.

"Ghostly howling."

"Blood stains."

"Voices."

"It's so cold here!"

_Wait – cold?_

With the word 'cold,' memories of chilly encounters with other-worldly creatures flooded her mind. As a member of the SPR team, she had soon learned that the presence of spirits and ghosts often sent temperatures plummeting.

"Lin-san? What's the temperature like around here?" Mai asked her quiet co-worker, who busily typed away.

After receiving no reply other than the incessant clacking of keys she took another tack. "Never mind. I'll check." Mai heaved herself out of her chair and staggered over to the monitors. Both of her legs had fallen asleep. "Wow!" Mai exclaimed, "Its 55 degrees in here!"

"Mai-san. It's been 55 degrees since we got here. Haven't you noticed?" Lin asked bemusedly, quirking a minuscule smile.

"N-no!" Mai chattered. It was feeling really cold to her all of the sudden..."Wait." she peered closer to the monitor, "It looks like it's colder in the attic... that's where we found the bodies, isn't it?"

Lin came and stood next to her. "Yes. But my Shiki would have warned me if they sensed something dangerous."

"Lin-san, its only 30 degrees up there! Could that be where the evil spirit is?" Mai craned her neck up so she could see Lin's face. He seemed thoughtful.

"Again, my Shiki would have warned me. Perhaps these particular spirits are not malevolent?"

"Spirits?" Mai asked. Why would he switch to plural? "Spirits....brainstorm!" Mai shouted. "The three girls must be the ones making it cold up there!"

"Hmm..." Lin deliberated. "But why would they not have passed on to the spirit world?"

"Unfinished business," Mai said, in a semi-spooky echo of the woman in her dream. "They want revenge, don't they?"

"Revenge..." Lin repeated. "On their murderer. Might they have another motive?"

Mai once again had a breakthrough. "To protect the people here! One of the people I was talking to earlier said that she heard voices saying 'she's coming'. They must be trying to keep people away from the woman who killed them. And then the woman is trying to cover for herself by also scaring people away. So all of these scary little details are just an attempt to cover up the real problem?"

"Well... that would make sense. Why don't you call Naru back and see what he has to say about this?"

Of course, Naru had quite a bit to say on the matter. "Do you honestly want me to believe the three girls' spirits are also hanging around here? Really?" Naru said, exasperated. "We already talked about this. You mean to tell me you weren't listening to the conversation at all?"

"Huh," Mai said, and after a long pause, "Really?"

"Yes, Mai. Really. Maybe now that you've got it through your thick skull, we can move on."

"Wait. Naru. Listen to the rest of what Mai has to say," Lin advised the younger man before turning back to his computer.

"So we know that this warning stuff is just a cover up, right?" Mai began. Naru nodded in agreement. "Then we have to just ignore all of that. Aside from the warnings, all we have is the three bodies, the low temperature, the evil spirit and a woman who 'did it all for greed.'"

"So what you're saying, Mai, is that in order to solve this case we need to just focus on just those few key points," Naru interjected.

"Uh..." Mai hadn't actually thought that far ahead. She had no idea what Lin wanted her to say, so she was just kind of making stuff up. "Sure..."

"Okay, Mai," Naru interrupted. Lin and I are going to continue our research on the first family, since that's where these problems seem to have begun. You go see what Takigawa-san, Ayako-san, John-san and Hara-san have to say about this." With that Naru swiped ink-black hair from his blue eyes and turned his back to Mai, exuding a fierce I'm-done-with-you-so-leave-me-alone vibe.

"Sure!" Mai chirped, happy to get away from Naru, who was now obviously in a rather bad mood. She figured it was because she had discovered something before he had. "Who's the dullard now, Naru!" she taunted, before heading out the door.

* * *

And thus, grouped together, SPR's workers were getting absolutely nothing done.

"John," Mai mused, "I dare you....to take off your shirt and run to and from the van, screaming 'Creeper!' ten times!"

"Whoa!!" Takigawa challenged, "No way a priest'll do that crap!"

John swallowed before saying. "I give."

Mai smirked. "Okay, guys. Takigawa, Masako, Ayako and I are still in. Uh... Masako, your turn."

Masako hid a smile behind her kimono before saying, "Mai, I dare you to run to Shibuya-san screaming 'I'M ON FIRE!!!' at the top of your lungs, along with, 'SAVE ME!!!'" All this she said in a demure voice.

_What was with all the screaming dares, anyway?_ mused Mai. _Masako = pure evil, _she concluded_._

"No way!" Mai argued aloud. She wasn't about to make Naru think she was a crazy person.

"Then you are outta here!" Takigawa teased, in a fake TV announcer voice.

"Are you sure Mai? You'd be really helping me out," Ayako said sweetly, "Taking out my competition, and all!"

Mai growled, always up for a challenge. "I'll do it!"

Masako smiled as Mai stomped from the room. SPR's exorcists and psychic followed the running 15-year-old to Base.

"Naru!" Mai skidded to a stop outside the sliding doors before throwing them open. "I'm on fire!"

Naru looked up from his files expressionlessly. It would take more than that to faze him.

Mai continued, "I'm burning up!" before throwing herself to his feet, and fake sobbing hysterically. Naru's mouth quirked up in what looked to be the start of a smile.

"Shouldn't you be working, Mai?"

"Save me!" The raven-haired ghost hunter watched in veiled amusement as Mai proceeded to roll around on the floor, screaming bloody murder. He looked up at the rest of SPR's members.

"Are you the reason my assistant isn't getting any work done?"

Takigawa shrunk back, intent on getting out of trouble, while John stepped forward, always the responsible one. "Yes, Shibuya-san. It is our fault." The Australian added an odd little bow at the end.

"Please refrain from distracting my assistant in the future," Naru deadpanned, before adding with an evil glint in his eye, "Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll have to pick up the slack around here, Takigawa-san." Ayako grinned as Takigawa scowled.

More work. Not Takigawa's forte.

"Sorry, Naru!" Mai had picked herself off the floor and was cheerfully dusting herself off. "But, it _was_ Masako who dared me to do it in the first place, so technically, you should be blaming her!"

Masako looked at Naru over the sleeve of her kimono. SPR's boss looked at the medium thoughtfully before saying, "Mai. Stop wasting my time. As punishment, I expect you to change all the camera film tonight. I shouldn't have to waste my time on such mundane details." Lin still did not tune into the conversation, even at Mai's anguished cry.

Takigawa, Ayako and Masako laughed at Mai, whereas John attempted to cheer her up, "It can't be that bad!"

_Oh but it can_... Mai despaired, the Onsen in itself wasn't large, but as there were so many separate rooms to be filmed, it would take her ages to change the film. _Why don't you make Masako do it? Damn you Naru, lazy, good-for-nothing bast--!_

**TBC**

_

* * *

_**A/N: ** Sorry! Filler chapter...I had to cement some ideas, and then I thought I'd add some fluff for you NaruxMai fans...stick around, because the next chapter is major confrontation with evil spirits time!

Question: Would you all like a sequel case to this story? Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	10. Laziness Causes a Complication

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Laziness Causes a Complication**

**

* * *

**

And so, because of Naru's alleged laziness, Mai was stuck changing the film in twelve cameras stationed around the Onsen. At 11:00 PM. Needless to say, Mai was not a happy camper...

"Damn him!" the beleaguered teen muttered, as she trudged down the dark hallway. This was taking longer than she had thought. Mai always looked on the bright side, so when Naru had assigned the punishment, she had figured that it would be good quality time for her and, well, herself. But it had already taken her thirty minutes to set up five of the cameras. Thus the annoyance...

Mai turned the corner and looked down at the dark grain of the floor. Shouldn't someone have come with her? As some sort of lifeline? And then reality hit. She was alone, in a long dark hallway in a spirit-infested Onsen, in which three teenage girls had been murdered.

Freaky... and then, of course, Mai got scared. She shivered as goose bumps rose on her arms. Was it just her, or was it getting colder? The shadows seemed more menacing, and the bag of film somehow heavier.

"Grrr..." Mai growled, as if the sound would scare away whatever demons were lurking in the shadows.

She turned another corner, and then hit a dead end. "Huh," Mai wondered aloud. "Did I take a wrong turn?" She peered into the shadowy corner, searching for the camera she thought would be there.

Nope, no camera... but there was something else there, curled up in a ball on the floor. Mai took a step forward and crouched down, peering at the thing. And then she realized that it was not a 'thing,' but rather, a person. With their head turned to the side. "Miss?" Mai ventured, "Are you alright?"

The woman nodded jerkily and then turned to Mai, who promptly dropped her film bag and screamed. The woman's face was a ghastly white color, excluding the dark circles around her eyes. Mai scrambled back, peering unwillingly into the woman's eyes.

They were filmed over, cloudy, no pupils. When the woman blinked, twin streaks of blood slid down her cheeks. And then Mai recognized her, it was the woman from her dream, Hana's mother! Except this wasn't a dream. The woman had actually manifested herself right here, right now, in front of Mai.

The apparition opened her mouth, revealing rotten black teeth, and a blood red tongue. She croaked, rocking back and forth: "Must be loyal. Must be loyal! A good wife," she intoned as she stared into space.

Mai was rooted in one spot, afraid to move lest the woman should see her. The woman looked crazy. Mai peered closer, even as her stomach protested violently. The odd thing was that the woman didn't look all that evil, just confused and upset.

"Must be a good wife! Clean up the mess..." mumbled the specter, unseeing eyes staring straight ahead, more blood dripping down her cheeks. Rivulets of the substance began to sluggishly make their way down her forehead from her greasy hair.

"A-a good wife?" Mai ventured, quaking in her boots. Literally.

"..." The woman's head swiveled a full 180 degrees, without her body turning, to look at Mai, as if noticing her for the first time.

Mai winced at the resounding crack that resulted from the woman's movement, and then repeated, "A good wife?"

"I must be a good wife." The woman croaked firmly, her sightless eyes narrowing, and staring above Mai's head.

"Are you Hana's mother?" Mai asked semi-fearfully.

"Hana," the woman said sadly, more blood dripping from her eyes in creepy tears. "I suppose so."

Mai blanched. This was the woman who had cold-bloodedly murdered her own family. But somehow, there was only sadness in the woman's expression, not malice. "You killed them," Mai stated.

"Ugh..." the woman groaned, her arms wrapping around her torso. A streak of blood reached the corner of her mouth. The woman idly licked it away. "I didn't want to kill them."

"You didn't want to?" Mai questioned. The... thing... before her seemed almost sincere.

"No. But I had to." The woman shivered.

"Had to?"

"I had no choice." The woman growled angrily, causing Mai to take another step back. "_He_ was the murderer."

"He? You mean your husband?" Mai frowned in confusion. This wasn't making any sense. She had thought that the woman was the one who had killed all those girls, but now she was saying it was someone else?

"Yes. He murdered the guests and stole their money." The woman paused, an almost dreamy expression on her face, "So much money..." she trailed off.

-

_"Yeah, that would make sense. The three were telling me to stay away from the one who 'did it all for greed.' So we can assume that the murderer is a woman, right? But we have to find out why she's greedy and why she decided to murder all of these people, to make all of this make sense..." _

_-_

Another brainstorm... Hana's mother must be one who 'did it all for greed' that Dream Naru and the three girls were talking about! Which would mean that in addition to her immediate family, she had killed two other girls. "Your husband was a murderer?" Mai asked skeptically.

The woman stiffened suddenly, noticing Mai's disbelief. Her fingers curled into claws, and the soft expression on her face hardened into a ghoulish scowl. She raised, blood streaming even faster down her face and dripping to the floor. "Interfering..." she screeched.

Cold-as-the-grave fingers curled around Mai's neck, and...

**TBC**

**

* * *

**

**A/N: **Thank you for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	11. The Word

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Word**

**

* * *

**

"Augh!" Mai screamed, clawing desperately at the hands wrapped around her neck.

"Mai! It's me!" She opened her tightly closed eyes and looked up. The woman was, instead of choking her, now lying in a heap on the floor.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Amen," John chanted, releasing his choke hold on Mai. He had come upon the scene just as the woman had been about to leap at Mai and had done the first thing that he had thought of, which was to pull Mai out of the way and begin chanting.

The woman writhed on the floor at the sound of John's prayer, but then stilled. She looked up at Mai through bloody, black hair and groaned, "You're mine." before sinking into the floor.

Mai stood there for a while, blankly staring into space.

"Mai? Mai! Are you alright? I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you!"

"... phew..." Mai collapsed to her knees. "I really though she was going to kill me. And I wasn't distracted at all- my life didn't even have the manners to flash before my eyes, or anything!"

John smiled. Mai was finding the bright -or rather morbid- side, as always. "Let's get you back to Base. You look like you could use a nap!" The Catholic exorcist pulled Mai to her feet and led her back to safety.

* * *

"What was that? Mai?" Takigawa knelt down and stuck his face up near Mai's. "On one of the cameras, right before the tape ran out, we heard you scream. Are you okay?"

"She's fine," John asserted, looking around at the worried faces of SPR, excluding Naru who was nonchalantly leafing through his ever-present stack of files. "The woman made a reappearance, this time in the hallway. She didn't do anything though. I think Mai is just a bit scared and tired."

Naru looked up. "Why wasn't anyone with Mai when this happened?"

The shaken girl looked up disbelievingly. "You were the one who made me go by myself!"

"Somebody else should have argued with me. This shows, first of all, how ignorant you are. And, second and most importantly, that nobody in this office has enough backbone to disagree with what I say."

Masako nodded in agreement, standing behind the smirking teen. Ayako screeched, outraged, "Because every time we argue, you threaten to fire us!"

"And your job is more important than the safety of a co-worker?" Naru shot back.

"You know what- just stop. I'm going to go sleep now, be quiet, 'kay?" Mai rubbed her eyes and then plunked down on the couch. Seconds later, she was snoring.

"How can she just go to sleep like that?" Ayako asked confusedly, it always took her ages to fall asleep.

"Because she's a normal human being. This is probably something someone like you wouldn't understand..." Takigawa enunciated each syllable infuriatingly slowly.

"Shut your bi-" Ayako began to shout, but was stopped in her tracks by a 'shush' from John.

"We have to be quiet, she's sleeping." He motioned to the sleeping, and now drooling, Mai.

"Shut your mouth, bastard!" whispered Ayako.

"Ooh... so scary! I think I may wet my pants," taunted Takigawa mockingly.

"..." John took one look at the odd little 'whisper fight' going on between the Miko and Monk and decided to join Lin.

"So, Lin-san... how are the monitors looking?"

"..."

* * *

Mai rubbed her eyes, and blinked blearily. She peered through one eye at the cracked, beige ceiling. _Wait... _she thought. _This isn't Base..._

The waking teen sat up quickly and took in her surroundings. She was lying on a hardwood floor -somehow she knew she was still in the Onsen- in what seemed to be a bedroom. A small, straw stuffed mattress lay to her left, and an old wooden chair stood to her right.

_Where am I? Is this another dream? _Mai looked about in confusion; there was an odd, semi-fuzzy dreamlike quality to her surroundings. It felt like if she touched anything, it would shatter into thousands of sharp pieces. She decided to sit back and enjoy the show. Mai was exhausted. If anything important was here it'd have to come to her – there was no way she was getting up.

Mai sighed and scratched her arm. _Oh. Crap... _she thought, looking at the yukata she was dressed in. This meant that she wasn't herself, but was yet again, a bit player in someone else's little drama. Sure enough, Mai, as the person, stood up and began to brush her hair with a comb encrusted with pearls. One, two, three strokes down Mai's waist length, black, shiny hair.

_Waist length!? _Okay, she was most definitely in someone else's body._ Grrr...._

The body that Mai inhabited started as the door creaked open. She felt her eyes widen in fear and if Mai could have screamed, she would have. Standing at the door. It was the woman Mai had met earlier in the hallway, blood, creepy eyes and all. Creepy eyes that were at the moment fixed on Mai's face.

"Utau." The woman uttered, before swooping forward and through Mai.

It was an odd sensation, like being enveloped in mist. Everything felt foggy... and, Mai wasn't alone in the black-haired girl's mind. Mai could feel the woman there, on the edge. Dark mist was seeping in at the edge of her conscience. Mai's partner in the body felt it too. She fell to the floor, clutching her head, until...

The mist cleared, and Mai/the girl stopped, and stood. She calmly walked through the Onsen to the kitchen, and opened a cabinet. Inside was a row of knives.

Mai gulped from inside the girl's body: knives were never a good sign. And then she realized something. _Wait...the girl isn't in control. _Mai could feel the girl locked up in her mind, along with Mai, screaming to be freed. Which meant that – _Damn! The woman's was controlling her body..._

Which explained why she had now reached into the cabinet. Her fingers closed around the handle of an ornate knife, and pulled it from its sheath. She briefly looked at it, and then brought the steel down to her arm. Mai and the girl felt pain like a shock, as the woman forced them to draw the knife slowly across her wrist. Blood bubbled up at the cut, and the woman continued to gleefully force them to slice away at the girl's body.

_Stop! It hurts!_ Mai cried; she could feel the pain as if it was her own. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as blood pooled around her feet.

_I don't want to die!_

**TBC**

_

* * *

_**A/N: **Thank you for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	12. Shiki

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Shiki**

**

* * *

**

_"I don't want to die!"_

Mai gasped, and opened her eyes. Ceiling. Again.

"Mai?" Lin, of all people was leaning over her, calling her name rather nervously.

"Lin? Whadda-" She was unable to get out a complete sentence due to the fact that...that...Mai reached up to her throat, and flinched. White hot pain shot through her body. "I-It was just a dream..."

"You started to shake violently. Everyone else was out, searching the attic for more clues. I'm not quite sure what happened." Lin sighed, visibly relieved. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah..." Mai levered herself up and hobbled over to a decorative mirror hanging on Base's wall. She inspected her throat; there were three long purple bruises. Like someone had tried to strangle her. "Ouch!" she exclaimed.

"I presume you had another one of those dreams?"

"Yeah. I was in the body of a person named...um...Utau? Does that ring a bell?"

"Utau? Are you positive?" Lin asked, his eyes widening noticeably.

"Pretty, why?"

"Utau is the name of one of the murdered girls."

"Oh! That would make sense. In the dream, Hana's mother killed me, which means that she must have been lying about her husband being a murderer. She was probably just trying to throw us off course." Mai mused.

"Do you remember where you were killed?"

"The kitchen, I think." Mai shuddered at the memory.

"We should focus our efforts there, then. Mai. Check the temperature there." Lin had returned to his businesslike self.

"Hrm..." Mai bent down and looked at the monitors, "It's...it's... just a little lower that normal. Not much though, I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't gotten really close."

"Which would explain why nobody detected the difference before." Mai looked up from the screens to see Naru standing in the doorway. "We need to set a trap, and soon. If I'm not mistaken, which I never am, the woman is aiming for Mai. We need to take care of her as quickly as possible."

"Of course," Lin agreed.

"Do you have any ideas?" Naru stepped inside Base, followed by the rest of SPR.

"I could try an exorcism." John offered.

"Don't look at me!" Ayako inspected her nails. "There aren't any good trees around here." "I can try..." Takigawa muttered, attempting to hide behind John. This wasn't easily done, considering the extreme difference in the two's height.

"John, your chant wasn't very effective, was it? You said the woman didn't react badly." Naru considered.

"Yes, that's true..."

"Takigawa. Why don't you try this one out?" Ayako asked sweetly.

"Uh..." the Monk sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "I don't know about that..."

"And why not?" Naru asked.

"No particular reason." Takigawa took one look at Naru's face and changed his mind. "I'd love to do it!"

"Then that settles it. Takigawa-san, get ready to perform an exorcism in the kitchen. We'll watch you through the monitors," Naru said triumphantly. Mai swore she saw a flash of a smile on his face for a second, by the time she had blinked, it was gone.

"Will you teach me how to do that!?" She asked Naru.

"What are you blabbering about, Mai?"

"That face!"

"..."

"The look on your face right now. The intimidating one!"

"Mai. Get to work." Naru deadpanned.

"Yessir."

* * *

_"Nanmaku sanmanda bazara dan kan." _Mai watched Takigawa's fuzzy form through the monitors.

"John. Give me a temperature reading." Naru commanded.

"Sure. It's going down quickly. Fifty degrees...forty degrees...twenty degrees...It's below freezing now..."

Lin stood and walked over to the monitor. Mai thought she saw something behind him, something wispy...almost purple? The tall Chinese man muttered something under his breath, and the foggy substance detached from his back, and flew through the wall.

"Lin-san! What was that? The purple-ish stuff." Mai questioned.

"You can see my Shiki?" Lin turned to Mai.

"Shiki? What's that?"

"They are my 'spirit familiars'."

"Oh! Like you get them to do work for you?"

"Yes. Right now they're protecting Takigawa-san. Watch." Lin motioned to the monitors.

Mai looked closely, but was unable to see any change. She watched as Takigawa continued chanting. "Shouldn't something be happening now?"

"Not necessarily." Naru mused, "His chant, as a whole, may be ineffective under current circumstances."

"Then why is he even doing anything if it's not going to work?" Naru chose not to answer her; his eyes were fixed on the monitor.

_"Nanmaku sanmanda bazara dan kan..._Naru this isn't working." Takigawa looked up into the camera, "Are you sure the spirits supposed to be here?"

Just then, knocking sounds resonated through the speakers; the monk covered his head as picture frames on the walls began to fall to the ground. The ceiling fan shook violently, before following suit. Takigawa ducked out of the way just in time. A dark substance began to seep from the walls, oozing down to the floor. The door began to bang open and shut, and the kitchen stools tipped over and began ramming against the island in the center of the work space.

"Takigawa-san!" Naru leaned into a speaker, "Get out of there! Now!"

"Oka-What the?? Holy shi-zzzzz" After another large quake, and screamed expletive on Takigawa's part, the screen went blank.

"Takigawa!?"

**TBC**

**

* * *

A/N: **Thank you for reading and reviewing! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	13. Suicide

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 13: Suicide**

**

* * *

**

_"Takigawa!?"_

Said Monk was currently splayed out on the kitchen floor, rubbing his head sheepishly. He pulled himself up and glared at the offending electrical cord that had tripped him in all the confusion, which, by this point in time, had abated. He then proceeded to curse fervently, after realizing he had stumbled over the camera's supply cord.

"Takigawa!" Ayako barged into the room, medical kit in one hand, and a cell phone in the other. "I called 119! Are you alri…" She trailed off stuttering, seeing the uninjured man standing amongst the kitchen, which was now in shambles.

"I'm fine, Ayako," sighed the Monk before smiling mischievously, "Were you very worried? Missed my charm?"

"No!" Ayako cried indignantly, as she redialed 119 and apologized to an annoyed hospital worker.

Mai and John charged into the room soon after. "Are you okay?" Mai sputtered.

"It's all good." Takigawa absentmindedly waved a hand in front of his head in an odd sort of salute. "But that damn spirit got away."

"The why did the camera go out?" John asked.

"Heh..." Takigawa motioned to the unplugged power cord.

"Oh." Mai sighed happily. But her feelings of relief were short lived. "Guys?" she raised a shaking hand and pointed to the corner of the kitchen, near the refrigerator.

"Mai? What's wrong?" Ayako peered at Mai's face, which was white as a sheet.

"That's the w-" John started.

"Woman." Mai finished grimly.

Hana's mother was standing quietly in the corner, identical trails of blood coursing from her eyes, and bubbling from her mouth. Mai once again grimaced, and thought, _"I don't even want to know how she died..."_

"Suicide." The woman intoned in response to the tentative question in Mai's mind.

"Suicide?" Takigawa asked, "Why commit suicide after killing your husband and daughter? Didn't you want to start a new life?"

Mai looked at Takigawa questioningly. "I dunno where that came from..." he said.

"Yes. Suicide. It was inadvertent. I did not kill my family!" Mai noted that the woman was becoming quite agitated.

"Well you did attack Mai. All the clues added up in favor of you being the murderer," Ayako said authoritatively.

"She was being quite annoying. I would not have hurt her!" the woman implored.

Mai almost smiled. The woman sounded quite a bit like Ayako. It was odd, but today, the woman seemed more open, more...human.

Almost. Mai still couldn't forget the woman attacking her.

"So, if you didn't kill Hana and your husband, then who did?" Naru and Lin were standing in the doorway, Lin with a notepad, and Naru looking expectantly for the answer to his question.

"Well..." the woman winced, as if reliving a painful memory. A splotch of blood blossomed on her blouse, and blood continued to run down her face. "My husband killed himself.'"

"But I saw you holding the knife!" Mai cried.

"I merely pulled it from his chest, after he settled it there himself. My husband was a disturbed man. I believe I told you he was a murderer? Well he was. Look in the basement -the back room- if you do not believe me. I convinced the spirits to move to the other side myself, days before you were called here. This of course, was why there were so many complaints."

Mai's head was spinning. If this woman was telling the truth, then everything she had supposed up until this point in the case was wrong.

"Fine. Let's believe you are telling the truth. Then what happened to Hana?" Naru persisted.

"Hana." The blood tears began to roll down the woman's face even faster. "Hana. My daughter!" she wailed.

"So you're admitting it?" Takigawa said.

"No! I would never! It was that interfering maid!"

"The maid? What maid? I haven't seen a maid! I don't believe you." Ayako folded her arms decisively.

"Listen to what she has to say." John reasoned.

"She was my husband's mistress. She helped him with the murders."

"Mistress? Mistress...why does that ring a bell?" Mai muttered.

"I've got it!" she shouted. "Naru, she's telling the truth! The three girls, from my dream, said the mistress of the Onsen was bad news. Mistress. As in the maid!" Mai finished triumphantly.

"Thank you for believing me..." the woman smiled before fading away, leaving only a puddle of blood behind.

"So...what now?" Takigawa asked, as clueless as always.

**TBC**

**

* * *

**

**A/N: **Thank you all for your support! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	14. Battle Plan

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 14: Battle Plan**

**

* * *

**

_"So...what now?" Takigawa asked, as clueless as always._

"Exactly!" Ayako chimed in, arms crossed. "How do we know this woman isn't just trying to throw us for a loop? And what's with this whole maid thing? How come we haven't heard about this before now?"

"Yeah. What she said." Takigawa jerked a thumb in Ayako's general direction.

Ayako swallowed hard as an ice cold finger traced down her spine. She slowly swung around and came face to face with Hana's mother, who decided to make a reappearance..."Waugh!"

"You stupid, self centered woman!" Berated Hana's mother, "You dare insinuate that I would kill my own daughter? Never! I called the three girls from the other side to warn your little assistant. They left immediately afterward."

"You're awfully talkative for a spirit." Naru commented.

"Well you would be too, if you had to spend all day keeping an eye on the woman who cheated on you with your husband."

"Well, why haven't you crossed over yet?" John asked kindly.

"Haven't you ever heard of unfinished business? Well, that's what I have."

"She's right." Masako spoke into her kimono, "I never noticed before because of the sheer mass of spiritual energy. It's so dark in the attic, I never noticed that I was unable to detect three separate entities; I just felt the energy and assumed it had to belong to multiple spirits. I can't take this; I get a headache every time I try to see up there." Masako swayed on her feet as her face paled. Ayako patted her back sympathetically.

"Well, Naru sent Hisagi-san and the remaining few Onsen guests to a nearby hotel, so we have the run of the place..." Takigawa commented rather unhelpfully.

"So..." Ayako turned to Hana's mother and then took a step back. She was no longer there, and a puddle of blood was quickly fading from the aforementioned spot. "Lovely." The Miko wrinkled her nose.

"We need a battle plan," Mai raised a fist menacingly, "to take down that maid so Hana's mommy can rest in peace!"

"Yes." Naru agreed absentmindedly.

"'Mommy?' Really, Mai?" Takigawa snickered and evaded a punch from Ayako's direction. Mai stumbled slightly and righted herself.

"I swear the floor just shook!" The brunette peered down at the kitchen's inoffensive tile floor.

Masako took a step closer to Naru, "There's something under us," she squeaked. And then..._Crash! _The entire floor shook violently before caving in about seven feet.

"Urgh…" Mai groaned, rubbing her throbbing head. She twisted from where she fell and coughed as dust billowed around her.

"Takigawa?" A small voice, Ayako's, filtered through the rubble.

"Here!" Sounded a rather pained voice.

Mai rubbed dust from her eyes and blinked rapidly. She turned around and came face-to-face with a rack of rust kitchen knives. _What are these doing down here? _Mai looked around and blanched. She was alone in a small room, surrounded by corpses. Some corner of her consciousness noted that they seemed to be around as old as Hana's body and that scraps of flesh still hung from their skeletal forms.

She couldn't even scream.

* * *

"Mai! Mai! Where are you?" Ayako's panicked voice echoed throughout the caved in room. It was large enough to serve as a basement, and most likely did at some point in time. "Mai? Honey? Are you okay?" All the other SPR members were huddled at a corner of the room as Naru attempted to reach for the kitchen doorway. He jumped and managed to hoist himself up.

"Mai?" He peered down and saw the girl huddled near...near at least ten dead bodies. "These must have been the corpses that Hana's mother was talking about. So she was right after all..." he mused aloud. "Wake up, Mai."

The brunette stirred and then sat up, "Naru?" She asked, disoriented.

And then she saw the bodies, "G-Get me out of here!" She screeched, clawing at the walls, attempting to get as far from the bodies as possible.

"Calm down. They're dead, they can't hurt you." Naru pulled Mai out regardless, and then Takigawa, who pulled out Ayako and Masako. Lin pulled himself out and shook his head in a vain attempt to sake dust from his hair.

"Well...oh my god." Akako hugged Masako to her.

"Well, Hana's mommy was right." Mai stuttered.

"No shit, Sherlock." Takigawa was quite pale, he added after second thought, "You said 'mommy' again."

"We need a plan." John spoke up.

"I think that we just need to attempt a séance and summon the maid, to try and figure out what really happened at this Onsen, and then proceed with and exorcism." Lin commented offhandedly.

"You...do you think that will work?" Masako asked quietly.

"I have faith in your abilities, John." Naru nodded towards the blond.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Séances are quite popular where you come from, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say popular necessarily. But I do know how to conduct one." John conceded.

"Then it's settled!" Mai smiled, content with having nothing to do.

"And, Mai," Naru's lips quirked up, "you will be channeling the spirit."

"....huh?"

**TBC**

* * *

**Author's Note: **Bonus from the Author's original script: "All the power was disrupting my sense. It was so dark up there. I can't take this!" Masako fake swooned against Naru, who nonchalantly caught her by the shoulders and propped her up against the wall." -Okay, that sounds like he just kind of balanced her against the wall...

Thank you all for reviewing, and I hope you will do so again with this chapter. Revised September 25, 2009.

Shinigami's Lullaby


	15. Priestly Essentials

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 15: Priestly Essentials**

**

* * *

**

_"And, Mai," Naru's lips quirked up, "you will be channeling the spirit."_

_"…huh?"_

And so began Mai's first experience as a medium.

"It will feel strange at first," Masako scowled at Mai, still angry with the brunette for stealing her usual role, "but you will understand what I mean when you experience it firsthand. You will no longer be in your body, but instead you will be able to see what is occurring as if you were looking down on yourself. To begin, one must open their mind and call for the spirit to come forward. You must offer yourself up as a means by which they can communicate. Understand?"

Mai nodded, and shivered at the idea of a murderer inhabiting her body. She was not in any way comfortable with that idea.

"Let us begin." Lin stood by Base's door, holding a camera, and flicked off the lights. Mai grasped Naru and Ayako's hands. She was too nervous to celebrate the fact that she was finally holding hands with her long time crush.

She sighed and then began to concentrate as Masako had told her. _Here, kitty, kitty! _she thought, suppressing a laugh. Mai shook her head slightly to rid her mind of the thought, and then began to feel…odd.

The maid had responded to her jeering calls. Mai stiffened as she felt a rush of foreign memories. Hacking at already dead bodies, cleaning knives, smiling sadistically while gouging out bloody eyes. The maid was the culprit, Mai could feel it.

And then she no longer held Naru's hand. She floated on the ceiling, watching, as her own eyes rolled back in her head.

"You are…the maid?" Naru asked.

"Yes." The spirit replied mechanically, no inflection or feeling.

"Did you kill the three girls?" Takigawa continued Naru's questioning.

The maid smiled. "Yes, of course."

"Why?" This time John spoke up.

"Because my master told me to."

"Your master is the husband of Hana's mother?" Naru frowned at Takigawa and John for interrupting his carefully organized questioning schedule.

"Yes."

"Why?" One word that meant everything. The end of the case.

"To prove my allegiance."

"Has your master passed over?"

"Yes. But not to heaven."

"Why have you not? Why do you continue murdering innocent girls?"

Mai's body shuddered. "I can't stop." The spirit shook its head back and forth, as if in denial. "There is nothing I can do. I can't stop. His orders binds me, even in death."

In that split second, Naru understood the situation. The maid was merely an unfortunate puppet and Hana's mother had been framed. The real evil, Hana's father, had apparently passed on already.

"And the bodies in the basement?" Takigawa asked.

"Those who were in my way," The maid replied, almost apologetically.

"Do you wish to pass over?" Masako intoned.

"Yes," the spirit softly replied without hesitation before drifting from Mai's body and disappearing in a plume of dark smoke. The brunette slumped to the table.

"John? Can you handle the exorcism?" Naru asked, glaring at Takigawa, who had begun scooting backwards across the room, still clutching Ayako's hand, in an attempt to avoid the responsibility of exorcising.

"Probably, the maid seems pretty willing to go. This should be simple."

"Of course," Naru agreed.

"Then, please see to it. We will watch you from here; I believe Masako said the spirit is residing in the attic." He looked to the medium, who nodded in affirmation.

John smiled and then headed for the attic, bag of priestly essentials in hand.

Mai, recently revived by an unnecessarily hard wake-up nudge, courtesy of a now smirking Masako, stood and joined the rest of SPR at the monitors. She watched as John took a bible and vial of holy water from his bag.

John began to chant, and splashed the holy water back and forth. Mai looked on as the maid materialized in a blood-stained dress, and snarled at the priest. As much as the spirit had said she wished to move on, she was not going to submit without a fight. The survival instinct of a spirit was as strong as that of a human being.

The maid writhed in agony as John continued; blood sprayed as she dug her nails into her head and collapsed to the floor.

Mai held her breath and then smiled as a golden light began to radiate from the maid, who had stopped screeching. The spirit looked up and smiled peacefully as the light enveloped her, cleansing her bloody dress, smoothing the wrinkles from her face. The maid slowly faded away, reaching a hand out to an unseen figure.

The priest smiled, and shut his bible. Mai began to grin as well and then frowned. Something wasn't right. Behind John, something began to creep out from the dark recesses of the attic. Black tentacles reached out, preparing to wrap around the unsuspecting Australian's neck.

"John!"

**TBC**

**

* * *

**

**Author's Note: **Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I really enjoyed writing this chapter! Revised September 25, 2009.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	16. Manipulation

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 16: Manipulation**

**

* * *

**

_The priest smiled, and shut his bible. Mai began to grin as well and then frowned. Something wasn't right. Behind John, something began to creep out from the dark recesses of the attic. Black tentacles reached out, preparing to wrap around the unsuspecting Australian's neck._

"_John!"_

The screen went black and Mai, for the second time, rushed from Base to John's rescue, ignoring the protests of Naru and the rest of SPR. She skidded around the corner, sprinted up the creaking wooden steps and threw open the attic door. The priest was sprawled out on the floor, eyes scrunched up in pain, mouth open in a silent 'o.' A black shape crouched on the floor next to John, a pale hand tightening around his neck, strangling him.

Without a second thought, Mai lunged at the figure, and then right through it. _Right, it's a spirit. God that was stupid…_she berated herself silently before picking herself up off of the floor and preparing to chant the incantation Ayako had taught her, "Rin, pyou, tai…"

She made the motions along with each word. Instead of shrinking away, the figure merely threw John aside like he was a rag doll and began to advance on Mai. The blurred shape began to came into focus. A man, relatively tall, with a crazed look on his face.

"W-who are you?" Mai stuttered fearfully, backing away from the man.

"You already know the answer to that question, don't you…" the man chuckled. His voice was cold, sharp.

"You…" Mai wondered aloud. Could this be? He was supposed to be dead and gone. The mastermind behind all of this? Had he been watching SPR stumble through the case, smirking as they repeatedly blamed the mysterious happenings on those he had manipulated to his own ends. "You're Hana's father, aren't you!"

"Bravo," the man smiled maliciously, lips curled disdainfully. "Now I'll end this pointless game of ours once and for all." With that little bombshell, he continued to advance on Mai, cornering her. _Where is everyone? Where's Naru? Where are Masako, Lin, Takigawa, Ayako? Anyone!_

"Your friends cannot reach us, I sealed the door." Mai shivered as he drew even closer.

"You're a murderer!" she spat at him.

"True. And your point is?" He stopped a mere foot from her. Mai looked around wildly for any means of escape. There were none.

"Why?" she whispered, "All those innocent people…"

"They bored me. Don't flatter yourself; you think your puny mind could understand my motives? I'm a genius, the only reason I was able to continue for as long as I did."

"Then was all of this to you?"

"A game."

"A game," Mai repeated incredulously. "You killed all of those people for fun?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. And I am going to have just as good of a time killing you." With that, he lunged forward and his fist came into contact with Mai's stomach.

It was the worst pain she had ever felt. Burning, she couldn't breathe. Like her insides were being ripped out. She coughed into her hand and felt a wet sticky substance. Blood. She clutched her stomach and stumbled to the side warily, watching Hana's father.

He grinned and all of the sudden his skin began to bubble and change until he was her own mother. "Mai, dear, you shouldn't have gotten involved." He giggled, sounding just as her mother had.

"Mom?" she looked at him through bleary eyes, "Mom, where are you? Help!"

"No ones going to save you now." All of a sudden he was at her side, whispering into her ear. Something slammed into Mai's chest, and she flew back across the room, crashing against a wooden post. She slid down, feeling nails catch against the skin of her back. She never though that she would see that face again. Her own mother. She had died when Mai was only ten. At the time it was the worst pain she had ever felt, but it was nothing like this. Being killed by her own mother. Lovely. Mai coughed again, slumping to the floor. It was over. She would never see Naru again. Never make fun of him. Never hear his voice when he pretended he didn't care about her, when in reality he obviously did. She was finished. Mai began to choke, coughing out more and more red liquid until it pooled at the floor near her mouth.

"Mai!" she heard John's voice shout, as if through water. She weakly brought her hands up to protect her face as her own mother strode over, laughing, and began to kick her maliciously in the ribs. Her mind registered multiple crunches, and then nothing. Mai saw Hana's father, no longer her mother, back off through eyes blurry with tears and pain. She slumped to the floor, unfeeling. She could only sense a burning nothingness; she couldn't even feel the hard floor beneath her.

The breaking down of a door...

Chanting…

Screaming…

Silence…

"Mai?" Her eyes blinked open, vision still blurry and spotted with red as though she was seeing through blood. Naru bent down before her as Ayako's hands fluttered over her prone form, cataloging injuries. The black haired teen touched her cheek gently, the feeling muffled as if she was partially underwater. "It's going to be okay."

_Good…_She smiled faintly, and then slipped beneath the waves.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! This is the last real chapter of Onsen Revenge, the next chapter will be the Epilogue. That's when the long awaited romance is coming into play! So, this is the part where you write a really long, amazing review and tell me exactly what you thought about this chapter and the entire story in general :) Thanks for reading, again, and review to tell me how I did! Revised September 25, 2009.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^


	17. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: **Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 17: Epilogue**

**

* * *

**

_"Mai?" Her eyes blinked open, vision still blurry and spotted with red as though she was seeing through blood. Naru bent down before her as Ayako's hands fluttered over her prone form, cataloging injuries. The black haired teen touched her cheek gently, the feeling muffled as if she was partially underwater. "It's going to be okay."_

__

_Good…_She smiled faintly, and then slipped beneath the waves.

* * *

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeeeep_

The incessant beeping sound began to grate upon Mai's nerves. She opened her mouth to tell someone to "Shut that freaking thing up..." And then she realized that she couldn't feel her mouth, or any other part of her body for that matter.

_Beeeeeeeeep Beeeeeeep Beeeeeeeep_

Mai struggled to wiggle her fingers. Nothing happened. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt as if they were glued shut.

_Beeeeep Beeeeep Beeeeep Beeeeep Beeeep_

She tried to speak, nothing came out. She tried to scream. Nothing. In the distance, beneath the lids of her eyes, a pinprick of light appeared. She headed towards the light, a smile on her face. Home at last........

_Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Be.......Mai? Mai? Mai!_

_

* * *

_

**Five Years Later...**

Naru sighed and drew a hand through his hair. SPR just wasn't the same without Mai. He didn't think he would ever get over that fact. He missed her for the selfish reasons- her amazing tea, obsessive cleaning rampages, convenient visions. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he missed everything about her. Her smile. Her laugh. Her fragile self confidence. Her puppy dog look. Her bright eyes. Her infatuation with everything that moved. The office felt quite a bit darker without her around to ward off the demons. Figuratively or not.

The brooding teen stared into his coffee. Ever since Mai had left, he hadn't been able to bring himself to drink another cup of tea. It just wasn't the same.

Ever since _she _left, the day his world stood still, Naru could not stop thinking about Mai. Every little thing reminded him of her. The picture she had taken of the Sakura blooms years ago that hung in the lobby. The bookshelf where she had secretly hidden a video camera and then played back some rather embarrassing footage. The tea cups. The snow. Movie theaters. Everything.

Naru couldn't stop thinking about her.

The unfortunate teen shook his head to dispel thoughts of his former employee. There was no use living in the past. The future was all he had anymore. That, and a ridiculously large pile of mail.

Naru flipped through the letters Lin had left on his desk. One in particular caught his eye. Naru sighed, and cracked a grin. Ayako and Takigawa's wedding invitation. The black haired teen just hoped that they didn't kill each other before they even got the chance to marry. Masako and John had also sent him a postcard from their honeymoon in Maui. Naru still didn't understand how the two polar opposites had even become a couple in the first place. As far as he was concerned, it had just kind of....happened....Ever since Mai had left, he had not payed much attention to SPR's other members. Of course, this did not include Lin, who he unfortunately still had to put up with on a daily basis.

SPR's last case together still replayed itself in his mind every once in a while. The first time he had felt absolute terror. The first time everything between him and Mai had felt so absolutely right. Even though the had two refused to admit it, there had been something hidden deeper beneath their usual teasing. Something that made losing her all those years ago so much more painful.

Today, finally, was the day his suffering would end. Naru smiled crookedly at nothing in particular as he stood, shrugged on his black overcoat, and ventured from the office out into the nippy November breeze.

He strolled briskly down the street, ignoring various street vendors, finding comfort in the lull of conversation around him. For whatever reason, Naru enjoyed walking in a crowd. Perhaps it was feeling like he belonged to something bigger than himself. Perhaps it was the other way around, the feeling of being so small and insignificant. Either way, Naru was happiest when surrounded by strangers. Rather, surrounded by people who were not all clambering to talk with him.

Naru shoved his hands deeper into his coat as he trudged up the bridge to his salvation. Finally, after all these years, he would be home at last. He looked down into the black-blue swirl of the swelled river and smiled. He had never felt this whole since Mai had left.

_I've been waiting a long time  
For this moment to come  
I'm destined  
For anything...at all.  
Downtown lights will be shining  
On me like a new diamond;  
Ring out under the midnight hour.  
No one can touch me now  
And I can't turn my back  
It's too late, ready or not at all._

_  
_He smiled and leaned over the railing, staring down into the mesmerizing swells of the river below.

_Well, I'm so much closer than  
I have ever known...  
Wake up, wake up!_

_Dawning of a new era,  
Calling...don't let it catch you,  
Falling...ready or not at all,  
So close...enough to taste it,  
Almost...I can embrace this,  
Feeling....on the tip of my tongue._

_  
_He tilted his head up to the sun, smiling at the warmth on his face. Finally, after all these years, he was going home....

_Well, I'm so much closer than  
I have ever known...  
Wake up, wake up!  
Better thank your lucky stars...._

His wait was over.

_Dumbstruck,  
Color me stupid,  
Good luck,  
You're gonna need it. Where I'm going,  
if I get there at all..._

"Oi, Naru!" The aforementioned teen turned, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he gazed at the petite brunette charged towards him, hurtling herself into his arms.

"Mai." He tucked her head under his chin, and smiled as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"College was too long, I missed you, stupid." Mai grinned cheekily.

Naru didn't answer; he instead pulled her closer to him, inhaling her familiar cinnamon scent. He was home.

_I've been waiting a life time  
For this moment to come  
I'm destined_  
_For anything...at all._

**.end**

**

* * *

A/N: **Thank you all for sticking with me this far, it's been a long time....I hope you enjoyed this final chapter, you finally got a bit of that romance you were waiting for ^^ I had a lot of fun writing this, thank you again for reading this far. I'm a bit sad, seeing as I've been writing for this particular story for quite a while. But all good things must come to an end, right? So, thank you, and please drop me a review and tell me how I did!

The lyrics are from Green Day's song, "Waiting." So obviously, they don't belong to me either :)

Golden List: Emina105, Azamiko, Dutchangel1979, Foxyaoi123, Shebajay, Flamegirl5500, Mitsuchan325, FallenRaindrops, Ms Bat, Krisaku, Baron Hotshaft Von Hugenstein, Fangirl666, Scoliosisr2d2, Ayjah, Kaydreams, Clairemuah, Luna-moongoddess, Angelictroublemaker, AkaneTaniyama (Although I didn't include the actual conclusion to the case in the Epilouge, you most likely can infer from the last chapter that the father, who controlled the minor spirits terrorizing the onsen, was killed. I hope that satisfies your curiosity ^^), Heavenslilagl420, LilyPika (Shoot, why didn't I think of that!? That would have been hilarious :D), Perfectgoddess, Kathryn J. Blair (Onsen are traditional Japanese bath houses- thank you for asking. Seeing as Ghost Hunt is an anime, I assumed that the majority of my readers would know basic Japanese terms...I'll make sure to stop assuming that from now on! :D)

And, extra special thanks for my beta, Corvus Corone- couldn't have done it without you! ^^

~SL~


End file.
